{"id":18000,"date":"2022-02-04T08:00:50","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T14:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/?p=18000"},"modified":"2022-02-04T08:48:12","modified_gmt":"2022-02-04T14:48:12","slug":"mitchell-hamline-debuts-muslim-law-students-association","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/2022\/02\/04\/mitchell-hamline-debuts-muslim-law-students-association\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitchell Hamline debuts Muslim Law Students Association"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Shahd Abukhdeir, MLSA president<\/p><\/div>\n

Shahd Abukhdeir says she couldn\u2019t fully find her space at Mitchell Hamline during her 1L year. So this year, a group of students and she \u201cdecided to create one.\u201d The result was the school\u2019s newest student organization, the Muslim Law Students Association<\/a>, which recently debuted with an online event on building awareness of the Muslim community.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur voices are hardly heard in the legal field,\u00a0and it is important for us to help each other\u00a0change that narrative,\u201d added Abukhdeir, 24, who was born in Minnesota and moved to East Jerusalem, Palestine, for six years before moving back. She is the organization\u2019s first president and hopes to use her law degree in human and civil rights work.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Faculty adviser Dena Sonbol ’08<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI’m overjoyed to see the Mitchell Hamline community’s enthusiasm around this group,\u201d said Professor Dena Sonbol ’08, the organization\u2019s faculty adviser. \u201cIt’s very important to welcome, understand, appreciate, and celebrate diversity in all its forms, which includes religious diversity and diversity in country of origin and or culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe time is now to expand our understanding of diversity and what it means to apply an equity and inclusion lens by at the very least including all diverse populations in the school\u2019s conversations and efforts around DEI.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Sayna Parsi, MLSA vice president and treasurer<\/p><\/div>\n

Vice President and Treasurer Sayna Parsi, a second-year student, says the organization will provide Muslim students with opportunities \u201cto connect with other students and faculty that have similar backgrounds and beliefs, even if they are not practicing the religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parsi, 23, grew up in Iran before moving to Winona, Minnesota in 2006. She says looks forward to working with other affinity groups to be a resource \u201cfor those that are interested in learning more about Islam and reduce misconceptions about Islam and those who identify as Muslim. We\u2019ll also show the diversity that exists within the Muslim religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ridwan Bobe, MLSA secretary<\/p><\/div>\n

Ridwan Bobe, a 22-year-old first-year student, is the group\u2019s secretary. He\u2019s interested in real estate and property law, as well as dispute resolution and mediation. He was born in Minneapolis after his family immigrated from Somalia in the 1990s. \u201cI am happy we have an organization that represents us and allows for others to connect with us as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also hope that it can be helpful for others to get to learn who around them is Muslim and see how they can interact and learn about Islam the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shahd Abukhdeir says she couldn\u2019t fully find her space at Mitchell Hamline during her 1L year. So this year, a group of students and she \u201cdecided to create one.\u201d The result was the school\u2019s newest student organization, the Muslim Law Students Association, which recently debuted with an online event on building awareness of the Muslim … <\/p>\n

Mitchell Hamline debuts Muslim Law Students Association<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5668,"featured_media":17911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,77],"tags":[331,124,158,333,332,334,337,336,335,43,330],"class_list":{"0":"post-18000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-features","8":"category-news","9":"category-office-of-diversity-equity-and-inclusion","10":"tag-affinity-groups","11":"tag-campus","12":"tag-dena-sonbol","13":"tag-islam","14":"tag-muslim","15":"tag-muslim-law-students-association","16":"tag-ridwan-bobe","17":"tag-sayna-parsi","18":"tag-shahd-abukhdeir","19":"tag-student","20":"tag-student-groups","21":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5668"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}